


Mall Babes

by Empress_Nocturne



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, and shiro is the delegated parent rip, just a mall au where they all work there it's fluffy and silly and not serious and i like it ok, let them have a good time and eat and complain about bad customers, well kinda? oh well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 08:42:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18796888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Empress_Nocturne/pseuds/Empress_Nocturne
Summary: The gang meet up in the food court for lunch, as their breaks align for once.





	Mall Babes

“Shoot! Okay, okay, where are they, where are…” Lance glanced around the food court, face lighting up as he spotted his friends. “Hey guys!”

Lance rocketed into the only empty seat at their table, fast enough that he nearly fell out as cheap plastic skidded on tile. His jeans seemed more ripped and bleached than the day before, yet the changes didn’t look new. But that wasn’t the main concern, seeing as only Keith noticed.

“You’re late,” Pidge said, ending her sentence with a loud slurp of her milkshake. “And you don’t even have your food.”

“Well, I’m sorry Hollister got busy all of a sudden!” Lance ran a hand through his hair and spread out over his chair, long limbs tangling and hanging as he slouched low, low, lower. “Keith, buddy, you can back me up!”

Keith shrugged. “I can, yeah, but why-”

“If it’s any consolation, bud, Keith only got here a few minutes ago.” Hunk popped a fry in his mouth. When Lance glanced over the table, it seemed as if Pidge had gotten there first, judging by the empty papers on the table and overturned greasy fry cup. Allura was picking at some Asian fare (or as Keith liked to call it, fake-sian, though Shiro had fought Keith over that). Speaking of Shiro…

“Keith, will your father- erm, older broth- ah-”

“Older brother. He may be my legal guardian, but he’s not my dad.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Allura’s cheeks darkened slightly, further contrasting against her signature blue highlight. “Older brother. Will he be joining us?”

“Nope,” Lance answered for Keith. “He’s got a date, y’know. And we don’t need parental supervision.”

Both Keith and Allura opened their mouths to argue – Keith that Shiro wasn’t a parent and Allura that they’re a group of rowdy teens of course they need it – but Hunk and Pidge beat them to the punch. 

“Oh, Adam, dearest, I would love to join you for lunch, but, but…” Hunk mock-swooned, hand on his forehead. Almost straight out of a historically-inaccurate period drama focusing on upper-class romance in Victorian England.

“What is it, my love? You can tell me anything.” Pidge leaned in, getting up to mock-dip Hunk and voice volume rising as Keith tried to speak over them. Lance was already cracking up and Allura gave up trying to speak, instead rolling her eyes and watching with bemusement.

“But-“

“You know I’ll always-“

“You don’t know that! You see, I…” Hunk looked around out of one barely-raised eyelid, then stage-whispered in Pidge’s ear.

“I have to watch my brother and his friends. They’re all children. Mere babes, Adam. Babes. Who knows what they’ll do without a strong, kind, paternal presence nurturing their mealtimes?”

By now, Lance had nearly fallen out of his chair, wheezing and cackling, face red and eyes tearing. Allura couldn’t hide her laughter and occasional snort, covering her mouth with a napkin after the first one. Keith couldn’t suppress his grin, but quickly paled when he noticed the figure behind Hunk and Pidge, who were still gushing melodramatic declarations of “that doesn’t matter, my dear” and “oh, but you know not of my responsibilities!” 

Shiro cleared his throat. “So, I never thought I’d see the day two of my ‘infants’ wrote me into a romance novel,” he said, eyebrow raised. Pidge looked up and screeched, rebounding back into her chair as Hunk began to sweat, eyes wide and a nervous smile taking hold of his face. Shiro was still in uniform for that out-of-place suit store in the mall, yet he himself didn’t look out of place amongst the teens in their various uniforms and name tags. Hunk began to try and stutter out an excuse.

“A-ah, hey man, uhhh we’re totally not talking about you and your boyfriend, nuh-uh, yeah, um…right, Lance?”

Lance choked on another laugh before assembling his limbs enough to walk to the food court’s Which Wich.

“Traitor,” Hunk muttered, even as Adam rested a hand on Hunk’s shoulder.

“Don’t feel too bad. I think you nailed Shiro. I was betting he’d rush over as soon as he saw Keith touch a plastic spoon too aggressively.”

Now was Allura’s turn to resume snickering, Hunk deflating in relief and Shiro watching with a bemused smile. Keith took the opportunity to go follow Lance for a sandwich. Pidge had recovered enough to chug the rest of her milkshake and she wrinkled her nose at Adam’s comment. “Well, Shiro,” she said between unnecessarily loud slurps of air, “how was my portrayal of Adam?”

“Well, I think you-”

“Alright. We’re going to go eat now.” Adam swung his arm up onto Shiro’s shoulders and smiled, somewhere between amused and frantic.  
“I think you nailed him,” Shiro finished, turning to look at Adam’s half-hearted glare. As they walked off, bickering, to the nearest empty table, Allura resumed her meal. 

“You both seem to have some potential in theater.”

“We’re good at acting, ‘Lura. We have to pretend we don’t want to rip the throats out of rude customers every shift.” Pidge’s voice was too serious to tell if she meant the throat-thing or not.

“Ugh, yeah! Like, I get it. Gucci is expensive. But the customers are often so entitled!” Hunk swung his arms up and landed his hand in his hair. “I don’t know how Adam deals with them all so easily, selling them stuff. I’m so lucky I just work the register, but, like, dude? Do you know how stressful it is to deal with some kid claiming he’s an influencer and trying to get some kind of discount? They keep arguing! One today threatened to have his ‘dear papa’ sue me or buy the store. Like? What?” He all but slammed his fists on the table, head drooping as Allura patted his back.

“Ah. Bad customers today?” Keith asked, returning with a sandwich bag. Lance was close behind, his sandwich bag clearly larger. Somehow, it was clear just by looking that Keith hadn’t toasted his sandwich. Hunk groaned lightly and Allura nodded, though she looked somewhat confused.

“I don’t know why you get all the rude ones. They’re not that bad at Sephora.”

“Or Hot Topic,” Keith chimed in. Pidge, Hunk, and Lance all glanced between them and groaned in disbelief. 

“Oh my god. Keith, Hot Topic literally attracts the opposite crowd that Hollister does.” Lance unfolded his long limbs into his chair, accidentally-on-purpose knocking into Keith’s arm with his knee. Cramped table. “Yeah, most are okay and a lot are attractive and that’s off topic but some are so entitled and their parents just kinda fuel it, you know? Like, dude, I want to trade clientele. Please.” Lance took his sandwich out, fingers ripping through the foil wrap despite what had to be a high temperature.

“Oh, oh, and at Apple, too! Like, no, I can’t let you cut the line for this! Or give you a discount on that! Or, you know, replace your iPad you broke that isn’t covered by warranty! Ugh!” Pidge stabbed her straw repeatedly, faster and faster, until it ripped the side of the cup. The straw hit the table and scraped, plastic on plastic, and screeched, Hunk recoiling from the sound. Pidge winced but, in her fury, didn’t apologize. 

Keith blinked at the outburst, looking nearly like a lost owl. Of course he didn’t get it. Even if he didn’t work at Hot Topic, his surly aura would be enough to tell most customers to screw off before complaining, with the exception of Extreme Soccer Mom Karen types. Allura, on the other hand, smiled in sympathy and reached out, resting her hand on Pidge’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry you have to deal with that. Maybe I can try to get you three jobs at Seph-”

“No.” Pidge shoved her ruined cup into her empty fast food bag.

Lance, however, looked like he was genuinely considering it. Lord knows he could work the skincare section until hell froze over. “Give me the info on starting pay and positions and I just might take the offer,” he said, somehow already halfway through his sandwich. Poor Hunk simply shook his head, rubbing the worry out of his temples.

“Alright. Just know that I can try my best for you guys. We’re family, you know?” Allura smiled, absolutely aware of how deep the implication was. 

“Yeah, yeah. Too much for lunch time, ‘Lura,” Pidge said, happily stealing some of Hunk’s fries, hand knocking into Lance’s as he tried the same thing. Smacking both of their fingers, Hunk sighed in defeat as Pidge pulled away with two fries and Lance with three. His pile looked significantly smaller. “I was gonna save those,” he whined, voice light. He didn’t really mean it, even as Lance swatted Hunk’s shoulder in retaliation.

“Sharing is caring,” he proclaimed, a fry hanging out of the corner of his mouth like grass from a gangly cowboy’s lips. Keith grunted in agreement and immediately Hunk launched into a tirade about how it’s not sharing unless I gave it to you, starting a light smack-battle with Lance, which Keith and Pidge quickly joined in, all devolving into snickering versions of themselves. Allura, through her giggles and occasional swats, could spot Shiro begin to rush over, Adam close behind. A true dad friend to the end, all smiles as he began to laugh along with their table.


End file.
